Tuition fees.

 

 Telegraph Education Editor, Graeme Paton, today reports that the Adam Smith Institute – an independent think-tank – believes that the cap on university fees has “distorted universities by restricting competition and artificially inflating the demand for courses.”

 The cost to go to university has risen steadily year after year and so has the demand for university places. This, you could argue, does not suggest that the “cap” on fees is causing the “artificial” inflation and demand for courses.

 What happened to the Government wanting more people to go to University? Surely removing the cap will increase the price and less people will be able to afford to go on to higher education, and there is nothing artificial about the demand for courses; especially when the Government is planning to cut budgets and university places next year.

 Most University courses are priced at the higher-end of the cap, about £3,200 a year. It is fair to say that all courses at a degree level should not be priced at the high-end of the cap – how can you justify spending £3,200 a year on a course with 15 hours teaching a-week, when some-one else gets double and more, for the same price?

 The cap is to be raised to £3,290 next year. This is not a significant amount to pay, however, what is the point in paying an extra £90? Who is that going to help in the long-run?

 There was once a time where people didn’t have to pay for their Degree, I am sure of it and I am even surer that, at that time, a Degree wasn’t in demand as much as it is now.

 If there was no fee, then students may not have appreciated their education – just like in school – and, the Adam Smith Institute thinks that this causes students to “choose inappropriate courses or not work as hard.”

 This could be true but, even with the fees as “low” as they are, there are still hundreds of students at universities all over the country killing time on ‘Mc Degrees’ and not really knowing what they are going to do with their future – they are wasting their time and money. Surely Government doesn’t want people wasting time and money?

 When people, and this includes young people, go to university, generally their decision is their own and their responsibility.

 The Study, The Broken University, suggests that there should be no set fees, thus, creating a “free market”. This would mean that the best institutions could charge as much as £20,000+ like they do in the States.

 However, this wasn’t the only suggestion the study made: what about only giving the full loan amount to students who are desperately in need, i.e. base it on their parents income. How?

 It shouldn’t be down to the parents, it should be a choice that is made by the student and they should have to, in the end, pay for that choice. Sounds brutal but, this could be the way people end-up appreciating their Degree.

 There is something which is being overlooked though; students aren’t seen, by society or universities, as “paying customers.”

 Tom Clougherty, executive director of the Adam Smith Institute believes that, ending the “direct subsidy” from the Government would “empower” students, because universities will have to look at them as “paying customers.”

 When the fee letter comes through a student’s door, telling him or her how much he or she is paying for a years tuition, what do they think; that they aren’t paying for anything? When did they ever stop being paying customers?

 If Government abolishes the “cap” then they will have to set-out standards and price brackets. A vocational course shouldn’t cost the same as a theory or a reading course and a practical science based course shouldn’t be the same either.

 How would the price bands look?

 Who is to justify whether or not a vocational course is worth more or less than a theory or a reading course?

 Perhaps it would work on the basis of “contact” tuition.

The sincerity of the university you’re fun-ding and you’re p-l-aying.

The power that a teacher has in school remains if you move on to college, though we have more respect for our college teachers; we have more independence and more of an understanding about ourselves and why we’re there.

The respect should stick if we move on to university; however, there is a shift in circumstances: we pay for our education and we bare the responsibility of our academic triumphs and blunders. The outcome is, generally, down to us.

In a restaurant you pay for service, you also pay for what you consume. Your decision to go there is influenced by what the restaurant offers and by the food you want – this is the same as higher education (the service and the products, not what they serve for lunch).

If you are paying for something, you want it to be specific to your needs; you expect there to be some restrictions but, generally, you don’t expect to be confronted with a non-negotiable situation.

Three years of your life and, on average, over £9,675 for education alone – you would expect to be happy with the end result; you would expect to be able to get to the next level of your life.

 Paying for a degree – you should probably have a say in what you learn – a lot of universities have, “end of term” feedback forms, which gives students a chance to express some of their opinions – is this enough?

 You’re paying a lot of money for a degree, even if you see it as the next step in life or just as something to do, it is some thing you are paying for.

 Imagine being told: “You have to give a group presentation, it isn’t assessed but, if you don’t do it, we’re not marking your essay.”

 If you are told that you have to spend time on a group presentation – which does offer experience for the future – and you don’t do it, even though it isn’t part of the degree, you will effectively fail that part. Fair or unfair, right or wrong?

 What if you were ill one day and couldn’t make it to a four hour lesson, you tell your group to tell the Tutor – what would you expect to happen?

 You probably wouldn’t expect the Tutor to turn around and tell the rest of your group to “ditch you”, do the work themselves and then tell them not to tell you. 

 The problem, at the moment, is that the majority of the students don’t see the debt and they don’t see it as them investing money into something – society tells them that it’s all taken care of and it is all free.

 It is taken care of and the financial worry isn’t there; this is why people don’t take university as seriously as they probably should. This is why it is forgotten that students are, effectively, paying for most of the things around them and the wages of the people who teach them. But it doesn’t ever translate in their behaviour or sadly, in some (and only some) of the staffs behaviour.

It is a common misconception that you need only spend three years of your life at university and from it, you will gain an amazing career – with no extra effort.

This mis-conception means people are going to university for the wrong reasons – people are just there, not knowing what they want to do; who they want to be or where they want to go.

 People go on to higher education thinking they can decide what they want to do in life after – this may be true but, surely you should be thinking about that before you invest so much time and money into your life?

University shouldn’t be something ‘to do’ because you weren’t sure what to do when you finished college. It should be part of a well thought-out plan.

If you are studying a vocational degree, then use it as a way of gaining more experience in what you want to do – don’t rest everything on your degree.

 If you have a love of the English language, then study it, but consider what you want to do after your degree – where do you want to go and who do you want to be?

 University should open doors and fill you with amazing thoughts and ideas. The doors should never close and the ideas should not be suppressed when you finish – there should be no end.

University musts. What do you want from University, Mickey Mouse?

The Government can see that the overwhelming need to gain a Degree is unhealthy for the economy; this was demonstrated through the introduction of Diplomas.

Studying for a Diploma is supposed to give you more life skills than you would gain by just going straight from school to college and then to university.

They are supposed to provide equal exposure to life and education – you can’t learn life and you can’t dictate how, when or where a person learns life skills. Does this make a Diploma right or wrong?

It is quite likely that you will learn more ‘life skills’ whilst studying for a Diploma than you would by taking the stereotypical educational path: school – college – university.

If more people go to university, because they think that’s what is expected of them, then the qualification ‘bar’ is raised, it is raised because a Degree is no-longer rare. Imagine a world where a Degree is the minimum entry qualification for a job. Is this possible?

The need for a Degree has created problems, or opportunities – it’s hard to tell. The  ‘Mickey Mouse Degree’ is an example.

It is a good thing that more people want to develop themselves through higher education but, do we create education (in an academic sense) where education does not need to be? Look at some of the ‘Mickey Mouse’ Degrees from the link above.

Arguably the creation of these means there are more jobs; it creates an opportunity for a person to pass down knowledge of a particular subject to multiple people through one class, making sure the knowledge is not lost. Good, right?

What does a Degree mean now?

What to post and what-not-to post?

There are thousands of blogs to consider and it is important, to me, that my blog differs from the majority of the others already there; this is why I am researching before I start to post.

 I am going to talk about three different blogs – one post from each.

 The first: http://ichatrr.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/starting-a-new-life-as-a-university-student/ (future).

 This post is written as an advisory tone. The writer considers, by using personal experience, what a university starter may face: “For many people, going to university can be the time of their lives”, this leaves room for a question – what about the others? And the writer considers this.

 “However, for others, university can seem quite a bit daunting at times. It is not easy to adjust to new surroundings”.

Summing-up two sides of a story is something that I will be doing – my posts will be based on my opinion but, backed-up with fact, quotes and other peoples opinion.

 The Second: http://mhobbs90.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/university-life/ (present).

 This is post is from the blog of  current university student, writing about their personal experience of university and what they think of it so far.

 I do want to include personal experience in my posts, however, they will be the foundation of the post rather than point.

 I don’t want to be writing a diary about my life but, an informative area for people to consider what they may face when they come to university.

 The third:http://justgodancing.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/a-different-kind-of-university-life/ (past)

 This post is about the writers past experience of university, it compares her initial thoughts of university to her experience and her final thoughts.

 This blog is more along the lines of where I want to go with my posts but, again, less personal opinion.

 Comparing these three blogs has helped me develop my understanding of what I want to be writing in my own posts.